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Reactor
Reactor was the name given to two robots from Robot Wars. Both were large, "teardrop-shaped" robots designs in the fashion of a reactor core. This design allowed Reactor to simply roll back onto its wheels. It passed the first round in both series it entered, reaching the Heat Final in the Fifth Wars. Afterwards, Team Reactor fought in Series 7 with Rhino. Versions of Reactor Reactor The first Reactor competed in Series 4 and was heavily reliant on wheelchair technology. Whilst the shell was built of steel and aluminium, it featured rubber and wooden wheels, custom made by Russell Orton, who was a joiner by trade. To back up the reactor core theme, these had the nuclear symbol painted on them. The tyres also had small screws protruding in order to gain traction, which Jonathan Pearce called "Ben Hur type spikes". Reactor was painted in a red and black colour scheme, and its main weapon was a CO2 lifting plate on the front of the robot. The whole robot was designed off a small prototype created by Daniel Orton. Reactor II For Series 5, the robot was known as Reactor 2, styled as 'Reactor II'. Its flipper was modified into a "flamp", part-flipper, part-clamping mechanism. The robot was painted silver and black, and for additional armament, an axe was added to the back. During the upgrade to 100kg weight limit, Reactor's top speed decreased from 12mph to only 8mph. It was, however, a noticeably stronger performer and a very reliable self-righter. Reactor 3 Reactor 3 was built for the Sixth Wars. It used the same body shape as Reactor 2, but was painted completely black and was equipped with a rear vertical disc, replacing the small axe used in Series 5. Reactor 3 lost to Raging Reality in the qualifiers for Series 6, failing to qualify alongside Lambsy, and was retired after this. Reactor 3 was seen in the Pits during Laurie Calvert's behind the scenes video on his own qualification.Laurie Calvert, Presenting Fighting Robot Lightning Robot History Series 4 Reactor went up against fellow newcomers Scorpion and the number 27 seeds Sir Chromalot in the first round of the Fourth Wars. Reactor's flipper didn't appear to be working at all, plus not much was happening early in this battle with none of the competitors making a great aggressive attack, apart from some light ramming and pushing. This was until Reactor got under Scorpion's high clearance using its low wedge and steep upper bodywork to flip it, being successful. However, Reactor impaled itself beneath one of the arena side spikes right after its charge, only able to free itself once given room to move by the attacking house robots. Scorpion couldn't self right, and was left at the mercy of Sergeant Bash and Sir Killalot. This meant Reactor was through to the next round of the heat along with the seeded Sir Chromalot. In the second round, Reactor went up against the 11th seeds Wild Thing. Before the fight the team opted to run the robot on a low geared drive ratio. This would prove to be its undoing. Wild Thing was by far and away the stronger machine, pushing Reactor around and lifting it with the arm. Reactor moved sluggishly around, failing to make a single attack as Wild Thing pushed it into the arena wall, Dead Metal in quick succession. Wild Thing moved against Reactor's back, and pushed it into Sergeant Bash, then Sir Killalot, who put a severe dent into Reactor's wheel. Reactor was caught by Dead Metal and sliced into. The match went to a judges' decision, who unsurprisingly judged against Reactor and put Wild Thing through to the heat final, eliminating Reactor from the competition. Series 5 In Heat D of the Fifth Wars, Reactor 2 was drawn up against Bot Out Of Hell in the first round. Reactor 2 used its flipper and flipped Bot Out Of Hell onto its side not very quickly. Bot Out of Hell couldn't self-right as it didn't have a srimech, so it was soon counted out by the Refbot and eliminated. This meant that Reactor 2 was through to the next round of the heat with relative ease. In the second round, Reactor 2 went up against the clusterbot and number 18 seeds Gemini. Gemini was on top at the beginning of the fight, flipping Reactor 2 over and over again. Fortunately, Reactor 2 had a round body, making it roll right back onto its wheels each time it was flipped. Reactor 2 then axed one of the Gemini clusterbots. Then, suddenly, one Gemini clusterbot flipped itself over after trying to attack Reactor 2 once again. Its partner clusterbot tried to right the other half, but ended up rolling over as well, neither clusterbot could self-right as they were both propped onto their backs thanks to their anti-wheelie bars. Refbot counted both Gemini clusterbots out, to allow Reactor 2 go through to the Heat Final. Here, Reactor 2 went up against the number 7 seeds Firestorm 3, fighting for a place in the series Semi-finals. Firestorm 3 started this battle by driving right onto Reactor 2's "flamp", and Reactor 2 lifted Firestorm 3 up with its flipper, but then Firestorm 3 was able to get underneath Reactor 2 side on and pushed it over to the arena side wall. Firestorm 3 then flipped Reactor 2 up onto the wall itself. Reactor dangled there for a few moments before finally falling out into the House Robot entrance, which eliminated Reactor 2 from the competition. Results |} |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 3 *Losses: 2 Series Record Reactor insides.png|The insides of Reactor Reactor2_filmingSeries5.png|Reactor 2 at the filming of Robot Wars Series 5 Trivia *Like Hypno-Disc and Stinger, Reactor's prototype was made with a child's construction toy. *Both of Reactor's appearances were in the same Heat as Sir Chromalot. *Of the fifty robots to return from Series 4 to compete in Series 5, Reactor is one of only ten to perform better in its Series 5 appearance. The others are Bigger Brother, Firestorm, Diotoir, Prizephita Mach 2, Kat 3, Razer, Rick, Destruct-A-Bubble and Clawed Hopper. *In Issue 19 of the first Robot Wars Magazine, Reactor featured in a Fantasy Fight as a combination of its first and second models, in the only instance of that comic incorporating a robot's Series 5 design. References Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots Thrown out of the Arena Category:Robots from Leicestershire Category:Robots with more Wins than Losses Category:Robots with alternate versions Category:Robots with Spiked Axes/Picks Category:Robots to defeat a seed Category:Robots to appear in Battle Cards Pack 2 Category:UK Heat Finalists Category:Robots with rollover designs Category:Robots with Rear-hinged Flippers Category:Robots with Pincers Category:Robots which debuted in Series 4 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Series 6 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Dutch Robot Wars: Series 2 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in German Robot Wars